
Badalona
Badalona is Catalonia's third most populated city, with around two hundred and twenty thousand people. It sits directly against Barcelona to the north, joined to it by the metro. Under the Romans this was Baetulo, and excavations from that era stand in the centre beneath a museum.
For anyone moving, Badalona is Barcelona at half the price: twenty minutes to the centre by metro, a beach inside the city, hospitals and schools on the spot. It is a working city with an industrial past and almost no tourism. Housing costs noticeably less than Barcelona's for the same city options. The drawback is density and building: this is not a resort or a quiet place but an ordinary large suburb.
- Barcelona · 10 km — the country's second city, direct by metro
- Mataró · 20 km — the Maresme district capital and the train
- Montserrat · 55 km — the monastery and the serrated mountain
Badalona sits in Barcelonès, Barcelona, right on the water. The square metre is 40% below the Costa Barcelona median: €2 769 against €4 595. You can live here without a car: our rating is 5 out of 5, rare on the Spanish coast, and the town has its own train station. A proper city of 230,642: hospitals, schools and work are all here.
Hospital, terrain, getting around
Where from: the Ministry of Health hospital catalogue, road time · elevations from the Copernicus terrain model · OpenStreetMap · ratings for car-free and hospital minutes are ours.
Badalona sea temperature by month
5 months above 20 °CsourceAverage sea surface temperature, °C, for 2015–2024 — NOAA OISST satellite series, grid cell 13.5 km from the centre.
Tourist load
Badalona beaches and water quality
sourceBadalona has 4 beaches tested under EU bathing water rules, at 4 sampling points. In the 2025 season, all 4 were graded excellent. No beach here has been graded “poor” since testing began in 1990.
The grade is bacteria in water samples over the last four seasons — not sand, views or crowds. “Poor” means bathing there is advised against.
| Beach | From the centre | Grade 2025 | “Excellent” in a row | Last “poor” |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Playa dels Pescadors | 0.5 km | excellent | 5 seasons | none since 2012 |
| Playa de Cristall | 1.1 km | excellent | 14 seasons | none since 2012 |
| Playa de Coco | 1.3 km | excellent | 4 seasons | none since 2012 |
| Playa de la Marina | 2.1 km | excellent | 4 seasons | none since 2022 |
No longer tested: Playa de Badalona (last season 2011), Playa de la Mora (last season 2016).
Where from: European Environment Agency, bathing water register, seasons 1990–2025, licence CC BY 4.0. Distance is from the centre in a straight line. Every place in one table
On the map
What tenants actually pay
sourcedThis is the median rent on active leases — tax records for 2024, a sample of 11 538 leases. It includes long-standing contracts at unchanged rents, so it sits below what is asked today: our estimate of asking rent is 1 150 € for a two-bedroom.
The point of the 75th percentile: it is closer to what is being signed now than the median. The gap between them shows how much a new tenant overpays relative to long-standing ones.
Where from: SERPAVI, Ministerio de Vivienda · municipality: Badalona
Rent by number of bedrooms
asking price, estimate| 1 bedroom | 850 €/mo | |
| 2 bedrooms | 1 150 €/mo | |
| 3 bedrooms | ≈ 1 500 €/mo | model: two-bed × 1.3, no measurement yet |
| Median of active leases, 2024 | 728 €/mo | SERPAVI · 72 m² |
Asking prices are what long lets are advertised at today; the registry is what tenants pay on signed leases, including old ones. The gap between them is your negotiating argument.
Schools nearby
estimateInternational schools counted in the base: 1. Names and curricula for this place are not verified yet — the school registry covers the thirty most-requested places so far.
Renting without a Spanish contract
How realistic a long lease is without a nómina — on foreign income, savings or prepayment.
- —A community with its own services: agencies have dealt with foreigners before
- —Prices rising 9% a year — the landlord picks, and the first filter is a nómina
This is our model, not a measurement: demanding a nómina is an individual landlord's practice and nobody publishes it. The rating is derived from the share of foreign residents, the presence of a community with services, price growth, seasonality of the stock and the size of the town.
Who lives here
INE 2025- Pakistan7 881
- Morocco4 731
- China4 723
- Colombia2 698
- Honduras2 609
- India1 545
- Italy1 517
- Peru1 485
- zhChinese~4 000school, doctors or lawyers in the language
- arArabic~6 000
Where from: INE, Censo Anual de Población · the register-based census counts padrón registrations by citizenship on 1 January, not everyone living here: seasonal owners and the unregistered are outside it, and naturalised residents count as Spanish.
Winter direct flights from BCN
January 2026/2730 min to the airport- other countries76
- Italy16
- United Kingdom14
- France11
- Germany9
- Poland6
- Netherlands3
- Switzerland3
- Portugal3
- Ireland2
- Belgium2
- Denmark2
- Austria2
- Sweden1
- Norway1
- Finland1
- Czechia1
Destinations served at least weekly in January; checked 2026-09-17.
Paperwork and practicalities
From OpenStreetMap — an open map filled in by volunteers. Something missing there may still exist: read this as «we found this many», not «there are no more».
Where to look next
- Barcelona4 595 €/m²
- Mataró2 512 €/m²
- Castelldefels4 327 €/m²
- Girona2 295 €/m²
- Alicante2 272 €/m²
- Torrevieja2 241 €/m²
- A Coruña2 762 €/m²
- Vélez-Málaga2 745 €/m²
- Alhaurín de la Torre2 736 €/m²